The Kidd Family night out, Finals style: Jason shoots for two hours with wife Joumana rebounding while son TJ and grandma shoot at the opposite basket.

It started as a trip to the Devils’ Stanley Cup-clinching game, but Jason Kidd simply didn’t feel right. The 6-of-19 shooting dud he laid in Game 3 and his overall 35 percent accuracy (21-of-60) were numbers that gnawed at his insides. So he detoured from Meadowlands Arena for a night of hockey, eh, and headed to the Nets’ practice facility, where he shot from 9 to 11 p.m. Monday.

“I have my own key. Just the cleaning people were there. They work long hours, late hours,” said Kidd, more impressed by the clean-up crew’s schedule than by the message of dedication he gave teammates for tonight’s NBA Finals Game 4.

“He struggled shooting the ball, so that’s what good players do. He’s a competitor. He wants to win,” said Kenyon Martin.

“It says a lot about him as far as a person and a player, not having too much pride, thinking he can just turn it on because these are the Finals,” said Kidd’s backup, Anthony Johnson.

“He’s a day in front of me because me and Tamar [Slay] were going to be there [last night] . . . But again that’s where you get it from. That’s where I get my work ethic. I see him putting in that extra time,” said Richard Jefferson.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Urgent, desperate, pick your word. The Nets are all that. They trail the favored Spurs, 2-1, and to lose a second straight at home and slip into a 3-1 spot would be irrevocably damning. At best, they would then go to San Antonio down 3-2, for Games 6 and 7. The Spurs know what’s coming.

“New Jersey is going to play with a lot of pride, a lot of energy,” said Tony Parker.

“We have to play it like a Game 7. Every possession is going to count,” stressed Lucious Harris.

“We have to even this up,” Martin said.

To do it, they must have Kidd playing like the energized all-Star leader he has been for the past two seasons. He has been outplayed by Tony Parker in the Finals, victimized by Parker’s quickness, some fatigue, an achy ankle. And by his cold touch (but his humor hasn’t been affected: Asked what Parker does better, he yesterday said, “Maybe speak French better.”). So he never made the hockey game and took mom Anne, his wife and son on a night of shooting.

“I took my whole family, let them rebound for me,” said Kidd, who held late night shooting sessions before, but not as a Net. “I was working on shots I was getting in the game. I saw on tape what type of shots I was getting, so I just wanted to work on that.

“Joumana was tired, but I needed a rebounder. She rebounded for me. My mom rebounded for TJ . . . I made some, missed some, experimented some.”

Scott and the Nets seemed uplifted by Kidd’s dedication. And Scott’s confidence in his team remains unchallenged. He was asked if he felt the Spurs, with their 2-1 lead, are the better team.

“I can’t sit here and say, ‘Yeah.’ I can’t. If you ask everybody on our team to a man, they would say the same without a doubt and mean it,” said Scott.